Battlestar Ajax
by Chris1978-A
Summary: What if another Battlestar made it to Ragnar? Please note Im only writing for personal enjoyment, so dont be too hard with my grammer and spelling!
1. Chapter 1

_Chapter 1_

_The end of innocence. _

Commander Alexander Jones sat behind his desk and studied a proposal of new drills put forward by his XO, to test the crew ranging from personnel re-assignments to battle drills with computer failure, which with fleet command pushing newer technologies and more automated computer systems on board ships of the fleet. Training the crew to not be totally dependant on the computers could be a good thing.

A sudden bang on the door indicated an officer was waiting on the other side, broke his train of thought.

"Enter" He called.

The door swung open and a fresh faced Lt entered, Jones recognized her as a recently assigned CIC officer recently graduated from the academy, been aboard for only two weeks, along with over two hundred other graduates helping the ship to work up after a prolonged refit at scorpion fleet docks. With so many crew changes and graduates on board, Jones knew it take some time for the ship to be brought to the level to be referred to as a crack ship. As many other ships of her class were being de-commissioned due to budget constraints from the current administration, some of the ships had to be kept in commission to maintain numbers in the fleet. As such, several capital ships had been, or still were, in overhaul and upgrade.

For the last several weeks he had run the ship though a typical work up. Most of the crew were now aboard and the ship was nearing its first duty assignment. Which is why the XO wanted to truly test the crew with something other than drills aimed to get the ship to battle station quickly, in a familiar routine.

The officer approached the Commanders desk, trying to not be obvious at eyeing up the commanders quarters. As the commander of the ship, he was on of the few officers that actually had his own private cabin and the largest on board, which was a luxury as space is always at a premium on board fleet warships of every class in the fleet.

" We have received a classified transmission from admiral O'Suko's flagship, Sir " She said as she handed over a file.

" Thank you, dismissed_"_

As the young officer left the room, the marine sentry swung the door closed he opened the file. The only people to have read this before him were the comm specialist of the watch in the CIC and the officer of the watch. If it was a situation were instant action was required, then they would have contacted him instantly instead of sending the message in hard copy via messenger.

He was ordered to renedvous with the flagship in 12 hours, that was un changed from the brief he had received then they had left the dockyard. The admiral would come on board for a informal inspection and he would then receive new orders for detached patrol and extended work up to last at least three months.

Just before engaging the jump engines to take the ship to the admiral he would also received the last of his air wing, mainly superiorty mark seven fighters which were flying off a transport ship equipped with extended fuel tanks to make the 11 hour flight.

One of the problems with the latest generation of fighters was the fuel consumption. They had great improvements in the area of speed and maneuverability but at a cost of fuel economy. While they had been fitted with larger standard fuel tanks, they still did not have the range of the previous models.

Jones reached out of picked up a phone mounted in the bulkhead of the cabin. All commanders calls were routed to the CIC and instantly picked up.

"CIC Hocki speaking "

"This is the commander, have the XO report to my cabin within in the next hour. Have the chief snipe report at the same time"

Captain Sara Richards stood in the shower of the transport, enjoying the sensation of steaming hot water hitting her body. She was scheduled to depart in an hour for the transfer to her new assignment with the rest of the flight. 45 fighters and 8 support ships would leave the transport after that time. Moments later the transport would be gone, its own schedule top keep. The ships commander had been pleasant during the last two days, but she was very ready to leave her get to her new ship and report from her new command of an entire air group.

She quickly turned turned the shower off and dressed quickly, putting on the flight suit that she would be wearing for at least the next 12 hours at least. Quickly she headed down to the flight deck, the entire deck was teeming as the deck crew of the transport prepared the flight for extended transfer. As she entered the deck, one of the support ships eco's took her luggage and stored it in the cargo pod.

Fighters didn't carry any cargo space.

The deck crew chief approached Sara

" Hey chief, I hope everything's ready with the birds. " She said in greeting " If anyone cannot fly, its gonna be a long time before they will be able to catch up with the squadron, and its not the first thing I want to be able to report to my new commander!! "

The crew chief smiled back

"Don't worry Captain, the flight is ready to go. Ill wait for you to give the word in the control booth and then I will de-pressurise the deck and open the flight deck doors. You will then fly out one by one, just as the briefing described"

Thanks chief" Sara responded, before heading towards her own fighter. The craft was at the front of the deck, the crewman ready to run the checklist with her.

She settled into the small cockpit and watched as the deck crew cleared away the last of their equipment. As the last of the equipment was stowed and the flight deck emptied she powered up the fighter, and activated the comm system and called for a roll call of the wing behind her. After that she opened a second channel

"CIC This is Viper. Flight transfer 001 is ready to depart. Requesting depresurisation of the bay and door opening"

"Viper, this is CIC. Stand by for depressuration in 3 2 1.… Bay doors are opening now. "

As Sara sat in her cockpit the massive pressure doors in front of her opened and she saw the short flight deck in front of her light up.. Unlike the capital ships flight decks which seemed to stretch on, the small transports flight deck exited at the rear of the ship, in the distance she could see stars.

" Listen up flight 001. As you take off, make sure your at minimal power. We don't want the engine exhaust hitting the ship behind you. Once we have all got airborne, form up in your assigned position and settle in for the ride"

She once again swithed channels

"CIC, Viper, requesting permission to depart "

"Viper, CIC….. You are cleared to depart. Safe flying "

" Rodger that " Viper said, aware that if anything happened to any of the fighters all that she could do was order an ejection, and have a support craft collect the pilot.

Moments later the first of 53 craft departed the transport

Jones strode into the ships CIC. As he did, the marine guard swung the pressure door shut behind him.

As he approached the table in the middle of the room, he called

"Sound action stations, set condition one through out the ship"

Instantly the CIC lept into action with a bustle, the intercom blared into life in every section of the ship in response from the ships commanding officer.

" Action stations, actions stations! Set condition one"

" Helm, plot a jump to the rondevous with the Resolution. I want combat launches by the entire air group as soon as we complete the jump"

"Sir, the air group is only at half strength and we don't have a CAG yet?" The air group controller in the CIC stated, concerned

" If we came had to attack a target right now, we would have to manage, this is no different. "

" Aye sir " as the officer swung away the entire network system crashed on board the ship.

" What the hell has just happened " Jones demanded, as the emergency lights kicked in throughout the ship

" Stand by " Captain Rathes, the ships combat systems operator called as she frantically tried to get the ships computer network to respond.

" Can somebody tell me what the hell has just happened to my ship " Jones repeated to the CIC in general

Moments later the pressure door swung open and a squad of marines entered and took up their assigned positions in the event of an emergency.

"Sir, it appears the on board computer network system has crashed. The ship has full power to all systems, the only internal comm system is the old sound powered phones. All systems have been automatically released to manual control, as the back up system kicked in "

"Very well. Mr Kim, find out what has happened to the computer. Launch a double strength CAP, just in case this is an attack of some kind. Navigation, plot a jump manually for the rendevous with Admiral O'Suko's ship. If we need to, we will have to jump that way"

" Aye sir " Kim responded, leaving the CIC for the bowels of the ship where the computer systems were located. As she did, the navigation officer approached

"Sir, we haven't plotted a jump manually for the last twenty years, the chances of us jumping into another ship, planet or overshooting are"""

" When I first joined the fleet we always did manual jumps. Are you telling me, something the you cannot muddle through once" Jones replied

" NO Sir" he answered, before heading away to plot the ships jump.

" Commander " Jones looked up too se that he was being called over to the dradis table in the centre of the room by the officer of the watch

"Sir, the dradis is empty, but we are currently vunerable if a hostile should turn up. I think it would be wise to signal the admiral and have the Resolution join us here, just until we can get the computer network up and running.

"I will take that under advisement " Jones looked round as the XO entered the CIC, seeing Jones he headed straight over.

"Sir, the ship is holding at condition one until we have a better idea of how and why this has happened "

"Sir, the Cap has launched. Four vipers under the command of Sky, they are assuming a holding position fore and aft of the ship in pairs "

Jones simply nodded in acknowledgement.

"Very well… I want a report in 30 minutes "

"Commander Jones report to the CIC " the ships intercom blared " Commander Jones to the CIC "

Jones turned round before he reached his destination reflecting over the success of the surprise drill. The snipe had done his job well, and had taken the crew 8 hours to figure out what had exactly been tampered with. They had then given him a 2 hour repair estimate ( which the snipe had laughed at as it was a simply 30 second bypass that he had just rigged up which had caused the computer network 'problem')

He had been heading towards the ships gym, but with the call to the CIC by the XO himself

Within a couple of minutes he reached the CIC. As he approached, the sentry swung the door open. He stepped inside and headed straight for the centre of the room, where the XO stood with a printed out message in his hand. He was also issuing orders.

" Recall the Cap and get the them refuelled straight away. Get the air group ready to deploy. I want to jump with the fighters in the tubes and ready top launch whne the jump is complete. Tell the snipe he needs to get the ships network up and running right now!! "

"Xo, report" Jones said as he walked up realising by the way he was acting that it wasn't part of the surprise drill. In response, the XO simply handed him the printout. As soon as he glanced at it, he saw it was highly encrypted ship to ship message.

However, instead of the usual format it simply read

"To all fleet units. Am under attack. Ship suffering computer failure. Major damage. Requesting assistance soonest"

O'Suko. Commanding.

Even as Jones finished reading the comm. The XO picked up a ringing phone.

"What the hell do you mean ?………. Well, fix it. We have to go now"

He slammed the phone down.

"The snipe cannot get the network to respond"

Jones looked up in horror,

"We have to go help the flagship. But without the network, we wont have half the control over the guns A lot of our crews havent seen action, or melded into a cohisve team. Reaction times will be down, for both offensive or defensive firepower"

The XO looked at his commanding officer.

"Whoever is attacking the Resolution must mean business if they have got the better of O'Suko. If he needs help, we need to go. Now!"

"Sir, the air group controller called " We still don't have the transfer wing on board yet. They will be here in 90 minutes"

"The Resolution doesn't have 90 minutes " The Xo growled,

Jones looked down at the display next to him, which normally showed the ships systems status on the dradis table. It was still dark. The entire CIC stopped as they waited for him to make his decision. Moments later he looked up.

"Helm, have you got the manual jump plotted ? "

" Yes Sir, we estimate a 2 million km chance of error. "

"In combat, they will have moved past that now! Launch the refuelling tanker. They will await the relief flight at this location. If any need fuel, which they will, give them it. Then hold position. We will be back. If we haven't returned within 2 hours, assume we wouldn't be. We jump in five minutes. We are obviously going to be taking fire. Have the flak batteries realised to local control. Turrets to await targets from CIC"

As he finished giving his orders, and the clock started, he breathed a sigh of relief. He remember one thing he had heard back at the academy, that had always stuck with him

If you ever have to make a major decision , make sure it is one you can live with! "

He stood in the middle of the CIC as the crew hustled in the pre jump preperations, when the clock reached 60 seconds he ordered the ship wide intercom activated.

"Crew of the Battlestar Ajax. You will all know by now that we are jumping to assist the Battlestar Resolution. The admirals ship which is under attack by unknown assailants. You all also know that this ship isn't up to scratch. Our computers are down, we don't have a full crew or air wing. "

"However, the ship being attacked. Its one of us! it's a colonial Battlestar!! We can and must go to their aid!! They would for us! "

"Remember your training, stand to your post""

Jones put the phone down and looked at his XO, direct on the eye across the Dradis table. He simply nodded to his commander

" Jump"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Trial by Fire

Ensign Todd sat in the launch control room for the rapid deployment bay of the starboard flight pod of the Ajax. As soon as the jump was completed the pressure began to build in the catapult system. Within seconds every tube was ready to deploy. Due to the depleted numbers of fighters currently stationed on the Ajax, the port bay had no vipers in the initial launch, which meant that as soon as the CIC ordered the fighters launched, and it was upto him to ensure that the vipers were launched as quickly as possible so they were able to get into position before hostile forces were able to vector in on the ship unchallenged.

He instantly sat bolt right in the booth as the order came down to launch.

He quickly toggled the mike

" Vipers, standby for rapid launch "

Rapid launch meant that the vipers would be launch within moments of each other, so unless the pilots were aware of this they could veer to soon and colide with each other.

Next he slammed down the manual launch levers for each of the tubes, and one by one the sleek one man fighters were catapulted into space. As soon as they were all empty he instantly began reset the system for the next launch.

Captain Claire 'Sky' Swales felt pinned as the viper she was piloting was launched from the flight pod as soon as it had deployed from the jump. With no CAG on board she had become the defacto CAG on the ship, and she had so far organised all of the air wing training.

The Commander was instantly on the comm system

"With the network on board the shipdown, we have not activated the fighters on board networks as we don't know how wide spread the problem is, so your operating on manual systems only. Take three of the squadrons and go help the Resolution. She doesn't seem to have any birds in the air. One squadron is to make an attack run at the enemy capital ship in support of the Ajax. I want the last squadron to provide close in support for the Ajax "

"Understood Commander. " While training had not yet run to a full compliment of fighters she had simply numbered the squardon's 1 to 5.

" Group 5, you get to keep the barn safe. Squad 4, attack the capital ship, try and draw off any fighters so the barn can open up with the main batteries. The rest of you, lets go save the Admiral "

While issuing her orders, Claire had swung her fighter round to wards the Battlestar Resolution. As the relief fighters followed her, she gasped as she saw the scene unfold before her.

She flew past plenty of sleek fighter wreckage as she closed on the be-leagued Battlestar. "Sky to the barn, There is plenty of viper wreckage, but only Viper's, no enemy remains "

"Acknowledged Sky " came the wireless response

As the Vipers cleared the wreckage they got there first clear view of the warship. The hull was pited with weapons impacts from stem to stern. Fires blazed out of control from main of the gashs in the ships armoured hull. Of the four engines mounted at the stern of the ship, only one was still operational. All of the running lights were out and only a handful of the ships flak batteries were operational. As she watched, the batteries failed to stop a barrage of missiles from the attacking capital ship.

They struck the ship on starboard side. As the ship reeled under the onslaught the starboard flight pod broke from the main hull. The reminder of the Battlestar Resolution went dark as the ship lost the remainder of its power reserves and the hull started vent atmosphere from many breaches. The attacking fighters, doubled pronged and deadly looking veered towards the oncoming force of vipers.

As the first attacking fighters reached the oncoming vipers the lead ships activated a red laser beam which hit the lead vipers…..

And did nothing. Under Sky's lead the Vipers guns and missiles flared into action destroying a score of fighters. The rest broke formation and the vipers followed, eager to avenge their fallen.

Jones stood staring at the Dradis console. The Ajax was closing on the attacking capital ship. He had ordered every possible reading of the ship to be recorded for later analysis. Suddenly a new alarm sounded in the CIC.

" We have incoming nukes. Alien ships are engaging with nuclear ordnance."

Instantly the Ajax's XO swung into action. "Flak batteries set to interception mode. Shoot those missiles down. "

He quickly swung towards the Commander " I wonder is it was an ambush with nukes that caught out the Resolution, "

Jones looked at an image of the massive attacking ship, with two sets of triangular prongs, connected by a central stem. He nodded then turned towards the officer who command the ships main offensive arsenal

" I want all batteries that will bear on the ship to commence attack. Salvo fire "

" Aye sir "

Sky piloted the viper as she shot down her fourth alien attacker. While the three squadrons had caught the enemy by surprise, they clearly had faster and better armoured ships unless they were hit in the cockpit area. However, she had been able to make her way, with her wingman, towards the shattered hull of the Resolution.

As the broken hulk drifted through space, she was able to view the port side of the ship, which still had its flight pod attached. She also noticed that the port pod still had minimal power.

Suddenly her wingman flipped and launched his remaining missile and a barrage of gun fire, destroying three fighters chasing them.

" Quick, Zoom, follow me."

Sky called into her mike as she flew the viper towards the entrance of pod.

With Zoom alongside, the two vipers landed on the pod, and taxied to adjacent elevators. As the two ships came to a stop, the elevator sprung into life and the two fighters descended. Tractors were waiting at the bottom and dragged through the airlocks the two Ajax vipers.

As they emerged into the surviving pod, surviving crew of the Resolution hurried towards the new arrivals. Their silhouettes moving through the shadows gave their moments a very sinister look.

Quickly, Sky powered down her viper and slid open the canopy. A crewman quickly attached a ladder and she climbed down to find an officer waiting for her, while others started to re-arm her viper.

"I'm Bill Wregger, ships XO, he said, noting the squadron patch that sky and zoom wore. "

"Sky, CAG of the Ajax. "

Suddenly the crew pressed closer at the mention of another fleet vessel.

"We are from the Battlestar Ajax. She will have by now engaged the capital ship, our air group has drawn away the attacking fighters"

Suddenly the XO warned,

" You must dis-engaged. They have the ability to hack our networks. They can shut you down before they engage you at close range. After that, it's a slaughter "

Sky allowed herself a small smile before shy answered

"We may have caught a lucky break then sir. The Ajax's networks are off line, as are the networks in the Vipers. We have nothing to hack, and shes currently keeping that ship from finishing off the Resolution hull"

"Thank the gods for that " breathed Wreggor. " I have 65 people in here. That's all we were able to round up as we headed here from the CIC when we realised that the ship was lost. But if what you say is true, we can disconnect the raptors on board network, then we can jump. We also have admiral in one of the raptors. He is badly injured"

Sky quickly climbed back into her cockpit and activated the wireless

" This is Sky, requesting permission to speak to actual "

On board the Ajax, Jones grabbed the Dradis table as the ship rocked from a missile impact on the bow. In the background he hear the on onboard chatter as damage control teams responding.

"This is actual. Go"

"Sir, I'm currently in the Resolution's remaining flight pod. We have 8 raptors ready to depart, along with Resolution actual. I need an FTL rendevous for the survivors."

Jones stood shock still in surprise as he realised where Sky was and what she was asking him.

He glanced at the Dradis, and saw that the battle was starting to shift in his favour. The enemy commander must also have realised this as suddenly, the enemy capital ship jumped away. Moment later, the surviving fighters also started jumping away"

"Sky, they are bugging out. Get everybody airborne and back to the barn. They are l be going to be back, and I think it will be very soon, with friends. Lets not push our lick to far today "

"Understood" Sky responded

Within minutes, 8 raptors and 4 vipers left the flight off the Battlestar Resolution for the last time.

The Ajax had swung round so that the ships stern, and recovery posture was aimed at the incoming craft. The air group survivors were also streaming onboard, combat landings for all craft had been authorised.

Sky was still 30 seconds out when her small on board Dradis detected two enemy capital ships jump back into the area. This time, however, they had the hulk of the Resolution between them and the Ajax.

In the CIC, Jones waiting until the flight pods had finished contracting, before ordering a jump back to the ships previous location. However moments before the Ajax jumped away, the nearest ship launched a wave of nuclear missiles at the Battlestar. He also noticed that both of the new arrivals were un damaged, unlike the ship that had fled.

Just as the ship jumped away interceptor fire from the lone colonial Battlestar caught the ordinance and it detonated. However, due to the velocity of the missile, debris covered the fleeing colonial ship.

On board the Ajax, as the crew were recovering from the jump, the effects of jumping within the shock wave of nuclear hit the ship. Moments later the ships power source cut out, and the ship started to spin out of control.


End file.
